The present disclosure relates to a control unit for an embroidery sewing machine, and particularly to a control unit capable of sewing a plurality of separate embroidery regions based on embroidery data that includes a plurality of stitch data for specifying needle drop positions and feed data or feed stitch data for feeding a workpiece.
Conventionally, a household electronic sewing machine capable of embroidery sewing can perform sewing of utility patterns such as zigzag stitch, straight stitch, decorative stitch, and the like. The sewing machine can also be detachably mounted with an embroidery frame drive mechanism on a bed section, and can perform embroidery sewing using the embroidery frame drive mechanism. That is, the sewing machine can perform sewing of the utility patterns by driving a needle bar vertically and swinging the needle bar in the left-right direction while moving a workpiece (fabric) in the front-rear and left-right directions with a feed dog disposed in the bed section, without using the embroidery frame drive mechanism. The sewing machine can also perform sewing of embroidery patterns (so-called embroidery sewing) by mounting the embroidery frame drive mechanism on the bed section of the sewing machine and by driving the needle bar vertically while driving the embroidery frame drive mechanism to move the embroidery frame based on embroidery data specifying a desired embroidery pattern, thereby forming the desired embroidery pattern on the workpiece held in the embroidery frame.
Embroidery sewing machines that hold a fabric with an embroidery frame and form stitches while moving the embroidery frame in two directions orthogonal to one another are well known in the art. Recent embroidery sewing machines allow a user to select a desired embroidery pattern from a plurality of patterns and are capable of sewing the embroidery pattern based on corresponding embroidery data stored in memory.
One such sewing machine disclosed in Japanese patent-application publication No. HEI-10-137477 includes a bed section and a thread trimmer disposed in the bed section. When sewing a plurality of embroidery regions sequentially while changing the color of thread used in each region, the sewing machine is provided with thread cutting data at the end of the embroidery data for each embroidery region, enabling the sewing machine to cut the thread after completing each region.
By providing thread cutting data at the end of the embroidery data for each region, this type of embroidery sewing machine can cut the thread after completing each embroidery region so that unsightly lines of thread connecting separate embroidery regions (i.e., jump stitch) are not left when regions are sewn with the same color of thread. As a result, the operator of the sewing machine need not manually cut the jump stitch between embroidery regions after the sewing is completed, thereby requiring less time to perform the sewing operation.